Captain Asshole

Captain Fantastic is a story about a man who retreats from civilization to raise his six children in nature. They have a well-ordered camp in upstate Washington, but things start to come apart when the man’s wife becomes so ill she needs intense medical care. Early in the film, Ben learns his wife has died when he and the kids make a rare trip into town for a few supplies.

***Spoilers***

I wanted to like this film. The trailer showed a lush, green environment that strongly appealed to me. Oh, how I wanted to be there. And as someone with PTSD and intense social anxiety, I certainly understand the impulse to withdraw. I’m not a survivalist, and I wouldn’t want to be cut off from the internet and telephones, but I would love to live in a small cabin in the woods. However, I got the sense this film was heading into territory that would rub me the wrong way right from the beginning. The first scene shows Ben’s oldest son in camouflage. He springs on a deer and cuts its throat with a large hunting knife. Then the rest of the family come out of hiding to congratulate him. Ben cuts out one of the deer’s internal organs—maybe the heart—and the son eats it raw. Ben then tells the son he is a man. That kind of hard, macho bullshit annoys the fuck out of me.

We quickly learn that Ben is a serious taskmaster. He insists that his children go through extreme physical training during the day. It’s like boot camp. We see the children climbing the side of a thousand foot cliff. When one of the teen boys slips and sprains his wrist, Ben tells him to buck up and get on with it. In the evening, the kids are expected to read and study. Ben is always there to quiz them on what they’ve learned.

I found it odd that Ben would have so many children. He is supposedly concerned about the environment, but apparently, he’s not too worried about overpopulation. And I quickly began to suspect that he had all these kids because he wanted to be a cult leader. Then I began to strongly dislike Ben when we learn his wife was severely mentally ill and that she committed suicide. Well, you don’t have six kids with a severely mentally ill woman and then take her out into the wilderness. That is way too much stress.

Ben isn’t presented as a saintly figure. He is arrogant, confrontational, demanding and unyielding, and the film doesn’t excuse these things. However, the film still wants us to see Ben as a sympathetic character, but I didn’t find him sympathetic at all. He’s supposedly concerned about human rights, but apparently, that’s only in theory because Ben comes across as a misanthrope. He holds nearly everyone in contempt…except for his kids. And the reason he cares for his kids is because they’re under his thumb and have adopted his worldview.

We’re supposed to believe that the kids are exceedingly well educated and that means they’re freethinking. What bullshit. Everything they learn is from books, and Dad is always there to make sure they interpret everything they read in the “right” way. You don’t have to be a censor if your tyranny is pervasive enough. Ben has made sure his kids have little contact with anyone who thinks differently from him. Reading books with Dad standing over your shoulder isn’t a substitute for knowing other people and seeing how they live.

There is a solid authoritarian aspect to this film that pissed me off. And the film doesn’t genuinely acknowledge that Ben was controlling his children’s mental development despite his supposed rigorous academic program. The reason I was interested in the film was my need and desire to withdraw, especially to the woods. But one of the reasons I’m not at home in the world is because I feel like an outsider. When I was growing up, I didn’t feel like many wanted to know me as an individual. They merely wanted and expected me to conform. Thankfully, my parents were not attentive, so I was allowed to become my own person even if I couldn’t outwardly express myself. Having a parent like Ben who is always demanding to know his kids’ thoughts and ready to sharply criticize if they don’t say the “right” thing would have destroyed me. And I happen to have had a severely mentally ill mother, so Ben’s selfish and thoughtless treatment of his wife made me hate him all the more.

As if Ben weren’t reason enough for me to dislike this film, the plot, in the end, took an easy turn that didn’t make much sense. Two of Ben’s older children rebel against him, and while attending the mother’s funeral, one of them runs away to his grandparents’ house. Ben sends one of his daughters to break him out. She falls off the roof and nearly breaks her neck. This gives the grandparents just the excuse they need to demand full custody of their daughter’s children. Ben realizes the law would be on the grandparents’ side, so he relinquishes. But when he leaves, the kids stow away on the family bus. All has been miraculously forgiven. And Ben compromises by moving the kids into an out of the way farmhouse and allowing them to attend public school.